What Fluorescent Tube For Lighting

[hgy477]

Hi,

I have a hood that came with a aquaglow fluorescent tube when i bought it. It's a 14 watts, and it came with my ten gallon tank and that's all I know. Now, I want to change it, because when I look at my tank with naked eyes, the whole looks slightly blueish, and I thought that blue component in lighting acts in favor of algaes.

Can someone give me some advices. If there are plants, will they be getting enough light with stock lighting? Can someone tell me the spec of this stock lighting tube. When I go to my local aquarium store, I often see demo tank with two strips of much whiter light.

Thanks

 

[Colin_T]

Blue light encourages plants to become bushy. Red light encourages plants to grow upwards.
Excess nutrients encourage algae.
A 14watt globe is unlikely to be enough to grow plants in a 10g tank. Two 14w globes would be better.

Globes have a temperature or Kelvin (K) rating. Natural sunlight has a Kelvin rating of around 5,700K. Below this rating the globes tend to be more red. Above this level the globes become more blue. A daylight globe has a Kelvin rating around 6,500K and is fine for plants. You can go up to 10,000K for freshwater but don't bother going above that. Try to stay above 4,000K too. Between 6,000 & 10,000K is best.